----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2001 12:25
PM
Subject: [humanmarkup-comment] HumanML
Schema Discussion Topics
Hi Everyone,
As of 12/19/01, our next TC meeting, we
have made little progress on the basic work product of the Human Markup
Language, our Basic XML Schema, during Phase 1. This is a statement of fact
and is intended only to assess the current situation in preparation for some
suggestions I would like to put forward for proceeding with this
effort.
We have asked Len Bullard to head
this part of the HumanMarkup effort as our Invited Expert, but we have given
him no assistance and no guidance, nor have we asked for a formal plan to move
forward with developing the Human Markup Language Schema or Schemata. So it is
neither surprising that little work could be done on this main work product,
nor entirely unanticipated.
A bit of recent history will be helpful to
this disucssion.
With our first TC meeting scheduled for Sept. 17,
2001, our work, like that of most of the world has been effected by the events
of Sept. 11, 2001. The second TC meeting on Oct. 17, 2001 coincided with the
Universal Access, Collaboration Expedition Workshop #7, October 16, 2001
organized and conducted by Susan Turnbull of the GSA, at which Ranjeeth was
invited to speak about the HumanMarkup effort, and his subsequent visit the
following day to the Emerging Technologies Task Group Committee meeting of the
xml.gov working group to which he was invited by Owen Ambur, co-chair of that
working group. So, while we accomplished the basic set up of the TC in
September and the first two subcommittees, and we revised our calendar for
deliverables in October, formulating a more complete work plan was not
possible.
A number of factors prompted us to
postpone and then cancel the November TC meeting
However, we are on track to complete the
first working drafts of our core documents by Dec. 31. We have two
subcommittees in place and a third ready to be pursued. We have made valuable
contacts in Washington, D.C. We are gathering requirements from a few of the
fields for which we intend to provide Human Markup Language as an HLAL for
applications which can achieve some part of our charter. So we are making some
progress, albeit more slowly than we had wished.
While this particular message is not
intended to be a complete year-end evaluation, I thought some assessment of
the current situation was in order as background for what I want to suggest as
a work plan.
Following Len's initial development of an xml toolkit
schema, I think that we should produce a basic Phase 1 document:
huml.xsd
This will be the first document to fill the namespace allotted
for us by OASIS. I believe we can say as an official comment in this base
schema, to use an adaptation of Len's first draft statement:
"For this
base schema (Len used the term appropriate for his phase 0 document: first
draft), all the schema types are in one schema for the ease of reference
(Len used the term: production). Later, these will be broken into
modules, or particular schemata (my terms) for better reuse in other
languages."
I think that we should take Len's first schema toolkit and
make what amendments we decide are needed in light of what we learn from a
rigorous, formal evaluation of the requirements from the application areas we
wish the Human Markup Language to serve. This is what we are in essence, doing
anyway, but I want to formalize it.
This is separate from the Language
Specification Requirements enumerated in HM.requirements from our core
documents, which defines working terms for complete compatibility with W3C XML
conventions.
I think we need to specify milestone
dates for these requirements to be submitted by the subcommittees we have
formed, or will form before the milestone dates, and any parties whose
interests need to be served by the Human Markup Language, and who can submit
those requirements by the milestone dates. I think we need to make this
invitation-for-submission milestone date for collecting requirements public in
a way that reaches the widest and most closely HumanMarkup-related audience
possible. This should be done after the first of the year to avoid being lost
in the barrage of public service advertising during the end-of-year holiday
season. Since we don't really have the time to do it before then, this is
really rather self-fulfilling, but, hey, we can say we followed our own
advice, eh?
Once we have the requirements, we
should ask Len to begin work with a team of volunteers that he approves
according to a timetable he presents upon evaluating the
requirements.
Further I think that all or most requirements submissions
should be broken down into two categories, as I also think the basic XML
Schema ought to be:
1-Processing Requirements: How language operators
should work. What functions are required. How is the data to be
manipulated.
2-State Description Requirements: How language should
model data for human mental, psychological, cultural, or other contextual
states or conditions or preconditions for required elements and attributes and
how should these be broken down in simpleTypes and complexTypes.
The
purpose of the basic huml.xsd is to give us a basic namespace reference which
can then be expanded upon in modular fashion.
Ciao,
Rex
--
Rex Brooks
GeoAddress: 1361-A
Addison, Berkeley, CA, 94702 USA, Earth
W3Address:
http://www.starbourne.com
Email: rexb@starbourne.com
Tel: 510-849-2309
Fax: By
Request